Activists move to block Dan Taylor from purchasing land beside his home

Although it boasts a spectacular view of downtown Calgary, the scrabble of disputed land next to multi-millionaire philanthropist Don Taylor’s home hardly looks like it should be the subject of such a fuss. Next to Evamy Ridge sits a decaying basketball pad and a few sprawling bushes.

Mr. Taylor — best known in the city as a donor, most recently of a $40-million gift to the University of Calgary — is trying to purchase about 3,700 square feet worth of bushes from the city.

Local community activists are up in arms, but the land has never been open to the public.

“Mr. Taylor thought he owned the land in question when he purchased the home approximately 20 years ago, complete with a basketball pad on what we now understand to be city owned land,” a Taylor spokesperson said in a statement.

Several years ago, the slope along the ridge behind his property began to slip several years ago, forcing Mr. Taylor and his neighbours to invest large sums of money to protect their homes and the field and playground below.

“When the slope adjacent to the property began to fail, the city surveyed all of the lands … it was at that time Mr. Taylor was made aware that his basketball pad was on city property,” he said.

For the past 20 years, Mr. Taylor had been maintaining the shrubbery and good repair of what turned out to be city-owned land. Mr. Taylor, preferring a small buffer between his property and the nearby walkway, requested to purchase the plot at market value.

“They’re selling parkland,” said Bob Lang, president of the Cliff-Bungalow-Mission Community Association.

The key thing is that we don’t have a lot of urban parkland

“The key thing is that we don’t have a lot of urban parkland,” he said. “As we get more population, there’s a greater need, that’s the underlying issue. There’s also an ornamental park that’s not there at the moment because of the construction.”

Mr. Taylor, who doesn’t live at the property overlooking the cliff, is a businessman who turned around a struggling engineering company in the ’60s. His April gift to the University of Calgary to construct a teaching institute came on top of an early $25-million donation to the school to build a digital library. He’s donated to numerous causes over the years, ranging from a $20-million gift to Mount Royal University to build a conservatory, to an eye-care clinic in Ghana.

Mr. Taylor’s spokesperson said he has tried to meet with the community association to answer their concerns, but requests have failed.

“Mr. Taylor understand the importance of green space within the community and has been an active supporter of Evamy Park by going as far as allowing the city to put in an irrigation line from his home to the park to help with watering the vegetation at his expense.”

The philanthropist also said that if he managed to successfully purchase the park, the green space would remain unchanged.

Mr. Lang said he expects opposition to the sale would delay Mr. Taylor’s plans.

“I suspect that we could be as long as until after the election [in October] that we actually get this dealt with because of the potential opposition to this proposal,” he said.